S’pore Electoral Boundaries Committee Formed As GE2025 is Set to Begin

By
Kacey Tan
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Four years have passed in a flash–Singapore’s next General Elections are back again, hopefully with less drama this time.

Reader: don’t jia jia (fake)… who wants less drama? I don’t mind the entertainment at all.

Prime Minister Lawrence Wong has just convened the Electoral Boundaries Review Committee (EBRC) today, 22 January 2025. This signals the unofficial start of the General Elections, that must be held by November 2025.

If that chim term looks completely unfamiliar to you, don’t worry, we’re here to give you a crash course on what an EBRC actually is.

Crash Course About the EBRC

The EBRC reviews boundaries of the current electoral divisions and recommends the number and boundaries of Group Representation Constituencies (GRCs) and Single Member Constituencies (SMCs).

In this process, members of the EBRC will need to take into consideration significant changes in the number of electors in current electoral divisions.

For example, the establishment of new towns such as Bidadari has greatly increased the size of the population in the Potong Pasir area, thus the EBRC may suggest boundary changes that deem fit in that region.

According to the official statement by the Election Department, the EBRC should also seek to keep the average size of GRCs, the proportion of Members of Parliament (MPs) elected from SMCs, and the average ratio of electors to elected MPs, all at about the same as that in the last General Election.

In addition, the EBRC also does not examine the results of past elections or profile of voters when delineating the new boundaries. Changes to electoral boundaries with the sole purpose of disadvantaging opposition parties–for instance, removing constituencies where the opposition party is favoured, will be legally restricted.

Rather, the rationale behind reviewing and adjusting such boundaries, according to a statement made by Mr Chan Chun Sing in 2024, on behalf of the Prime Minister, is to ensure that “each constituency is an area that its MP or MPs can effectively represent and serve”.

The EBRC consists of the following senior civil servants, who are experts in various technical areas:

  • Secretary to Prime Minister (Chairperson)
  • Chief Executive Officer of Housing and Development Board (Member)
  • Chief Executive of Singapore Land Authority (Member)
  • Chief Statistician of Department of Statistics (Member)
  • Head of Elections Department (Secretary)

The EBRC of the 2025 General Elections comprises of:

  • Mr Tan Kee Yong (Secretary to Prime Minister)
  • Mr Tan Meng Dui (Chief Executive Officer of Housing and Development Board)
  • Mr Low Hsien Yang Colin (Chief Executive of Singapore Land Authority)
  • Dr Koh Eng Chuan (Chief Statistician of Department of Statistics)
  • Mr Lim Zhi Yang (Head of Elections Department)

What’s next?

Let’s be real, most of us are probably only concerned about the campaigning period and polling day, so what’s next after the convening of the EBRC?

Unlike most of us at work, the EBRC does not have a deadline to issue its report to its big boss, PM Lawrence Wong. Previously, the committees had taken between three weeks and seven and a half months to do so.

After the EBRC issues their report and the changes to electoral boundaries are released, the Parliament is dissolved, and the general elections will be confirmed to take place within the following three months.

The Writ of Election is issued next, followed by Nomination Day, when parties submit the relevant papers at nomination centres and candidates are finalised.

The part that I’m sure many of us are secretly looking forward to, the campaigning period, takes place in the following few days (usually nine days).

Before polling day approaches, there will be a cooling-off day where campaigning is prohibited.

Finally, on polling day (a public holiday!), voting will take place from 8am to 8pm.

If you watch at least 10 minutes of brain rot content daily, you must know this:

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Kacey Tan